APQC,
the nonprofit leader in benchmarking and best practices research, has
introduced a business process framework for the retail industry.
Following the recent update of its cross-industry Process Classification
FrameworkSM (PCF), the Retail PCF was developed by APQC in
collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Enterprise
Strategy Services group and APQC member companies. Microsoft
Enterprise Strategy Services employs methodologies and frameworks that
are built on extensive knowledge and experience working with customers
in various industries around the world. The Retail PCF covers a wide
variety of retail formats with a particular focus on omni-channel
retailers and is intended to help retailers better understand processes
across all customer channels. It may be downloaded at www.apqc.org/pcf.

“APQC is excited to provide retailers with the same benefits that other
organizations have received from industry-specific process
classification frameworks, such as benchmarking, process definition, and
content management information,” said John
Tesmer, senior program manager with APQC. “As we have already in
many different industries, such as automotive, banking, consumer
products and telecommunications and others, this framework will enable
retailers to judge how they measure up to other retailers in an
objective and standardized format.”

“The Retail PCF will enable the community to benchmark, improve its
processes across the entire value chain and help retailers move forward
in their quest to improve customer experiences, engage their employees
and differentiate their brand,” said Tracy Issel, general manager,
Worldwide Retail Sector, Microsoft Corp. “We are thrilled to work with
the APQC to expand its industry coverage with our Retail Process Model.”

At its simplest level, APQC’s PCF is a list that organizations can take
advantage of to define work processes comprehensively and without
redundancies and to support benchmarking, manage content, and perform
other important performance management activities. The PCF identifies 12
high-level functional categories and contains over 1,000 process
elements that, when considered as a whole, represent the operations of
an organization.

The PCF forms the foundation of the APQC Open Standards Benchmarking
CollaborativeSM (OSBC) research (www.apqc.org/osbc).
The OSBC program allows organizations to directly compare their
performance - at no cost - against other organizations for the detailed
processes described in the PCF. In addition the PCF enables
organizations to understand their inner workings from a more
customer-focused horizontal process viewpoint rather than a vertical
functional viewpoint.

APQC is a member-based nonprofit and one of the world’s leading
proponents of knowledge management, benchmarking, and best practices
business research. Working with more than 750 organizations worldwide in
all industries, APQC provides organizations with the information they
need to work smarter, faster, and with confidence. Visit www.apqc.org or
call +1.713.681.4020 and learn how to Make Best Practices Your PracticesSM.

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